Any publicity is good publicity…
There’s an old adage in public relations and marketing: “Any publicity is good publicity.” Major League Baseball needs to really consider what that means.
For a league in desperate need of attention and news share, a massive scandal involving the league’s best player can be just what the doctor ordered. Yet, MLB seems very motivated to make the recent gambling scandal involving Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter go away.
For those that missed it somehow, here’s the quick gist. Ohtani’s (now former) interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, has been accused of stealing around $4.5 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts.
Initially, the conspiracy theories ran rampant. Was Ohtani himself gambling? I mean, $4.5 million is a massive credit for any bookie to extend to someone not making multi millions. Did Mizuhara simply take the fall for his friend?
Questions about Ohtani’s English proficiency have been brought up as well. Does he know more English than he lets on? Teammates have always been adamant that Shohei can speak and understand English. Additionally, he delivered his entire MVP acceptance speech in English.
In fairness, he’s got everything written out to read aloud there.
Look. I don’t want to speculate about whether any of the wild theories are true. The reality is that they probably aren’t. Nonetheless, I don’t think it should matter.
Major League Baseball needs this story to stay a story. It should let the conspiracies keep flying. This has potential to be the biggest story in sports, and any publicity is good publicity. Yet, the league and Ohtani hurriedly poured cold water on the entire thing.
Baseball needs an good old-fashioned scandal
To me, the entire story is just too wild for the league not to capitalize on the potential publicity. I mean, think of the mid-2000’s when baseball had a much stronger presence. You could turn on SportsCenter most mornings and the lead story wouldn’t be an NBA MVP debate. It wouldn’t be NFL Draft speculation.
Instead, it would be Barry Bonds breaking the career home run record while everyone knew he was on steroids. If Twitter existed, mainstream sports accounts would have speculated about Alex Rodriguez’s increased muscle composition. I still remember to this day when Roger Clemens dominated headlines with his Congressional hearing in 2008.
The bottom-line is that baseball needs a scandal to give it some juice. The Ohtani/Mizuhara gambling situation is undeniably the perfect opportunity for one. There isn’t a more powerful emotion in sports than hate, and it’s about time baseball had a villain in the mainstream media.
For the record, I love Ohtani and his game and hope none of the conspiracies are true. Hopefully, he, his attorneys, and the league are telling the truth in painting him as a victim of theft. Nonetheless, I think MLB really shouldn’t be in such a rush to make this story go away.
This situation has the magnetism to draw casual fans and non-fans back into the game out of interest in Ohtani. Certainly, it’s too important and too crazy not to give it some oxygen. Give this story some true room to breathe, and MLB could have a real catalyst for mainstream relevance on its hands.